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Awe vs Panic - What's the difference?

awe | panic | Synonyms |

As nouns the difference between awe and panic

is that awe is a feeling of fear and reverence while panic is overpowering fright, often affecting groups of people or animals.

As verbs the difference between awe and panic

is that awe is to inspire fear and reverence in while panic is to feel overwhelming fear.

As an adjective panic is

pertaining to the god Pan.

awe

English

Noun

(-)
  • A feeling of fear and reverence.
  • A feeling of amazement.
  • * 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
  • For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2012, month=March-April
  • , author=Anna Lena Phillips , title=Sneaky Silk Moths , volume=100, issue=2, page=172 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.}}

    Derived terms

    * awe-inspiring * awesome * awestruck * awful

    Verb

    (aw)
  • To inspire fear and reverence in.
  • * '>citation
  • To control by inspiring dread.
  • Synonyms

    * (inspire reverence) enthral, enthrall; overwhelm

    Derived terms

    * awed * awesome * awe-inspiring * awful

    panic

    English

    (wikipedia panic)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) panique, from (etyl) . is the god of woods and fields who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.

    Alternative forms

    * panick (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Pertaining to the god Pan.
  • Of fear, fright etc: sudden or overwhelming (attributed by the ancient Greeks to the influence of ).
  • *, Folio Society, 2006, vol.1, pp.57-8:
  • All things were there in a disordered confusion, and in a confused furie, untill such time as by praiers and sacrifices they had appeased the wrath of their Gods. They call it to this day, the Panike terror.
  • * 1978 , (Lawrence Durrell), Livia'', Faber & Faber 1992 (''Avignon Quintet ), p.537:
  • At that moment a flight of birds passed close overhead, and at the whirr of their wings a panic fear seized her.
  • * 1993 , James Michie, trans. Ovid, The Art of Love , Book II:
  • Terrified, he looked down from the skies / At the waves, and panic blackness filled his eyes.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Overpowering fright, often affecting groups of people or animals.
  • *
  • *:She wakened in sharp panic , bewildered by the grotesquerie of some half-remembered dream in contrast with the harshness of inclement fact.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • *1994 , (Stephen Fry), (The Hippopotamus) Chapter 2
  • *:With a bolt of fright he remembered that there was no bathroom in the Hobhouse Room. He leapt along the corridor in a panic , stopping by the long-case clock at the end where he flattened himself against the wall.
  • Rapid reduction in asset prices due to broad efforts to raise cash in anticipation of continuing decline in asset prices.
  • *
  • Derived terms
    * panic attack * panic button * panic disorder * panic room

    Verb

  • To feel overwhelming fear.
  • Etymology 2

    (etyl) (lena) panicum.

    Noun

  • (botany) A plant of the genus Panicum .
  • Synonyms
    * panicgrass, ----